More on Pat Fitzgerald (Hour 4)

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Find a retailer near you. That's Serta.com. A really bizarre, Bob Huggins now saying he never resigned at West Virginia after originally making homophobic comments on a radio station and then getting arrested for DUI. And we thought he resigned, now he says he didn't.

He's trying to get his job back, which he won't, and he's threatening to sue. And then Pat Fitzgerald on Friday, he was suspended two weeks after a hazing investigation. More information did come out over the weekend, and now he's out as the head football coach at Northwestern. Let's head out to the guest line right now and welcome in a man that's covered college football for a long time for the athletic, and that of course is Matt Fortuna. Matt, appreciate the time as always. How you been?

Hey Zach, doing well buddy, how are you? So how do you react to what has happened here at Northwestern in what is truly a bizarre situation in the last 72 hours or so? Yeah, it's shocking.

It really is. I mean, once this thing got to the point of overturn, which in my opinion really happened Saturday with the daily Northwestern report, I thought there was an inevitable conclusion to this. But it's shocking to your point, 72 hours or so ago, we're talking about Friday in the summer and Northwestern as a news dump of a headline where, you know, the report on our internal investigation into hazing is complete.

It was found to be valid, but the coaches had no knowledge of it, and therefore Pat Fitzgerald will serve a two-week unpaid suspension, which was during his probable vacation time. So I thought, you know, looking back on it, very naive and stupid, frankly, of the administration to think they could brush this thing under the rug, especially at a school that churns out incredible journalists by the dozen. I mean, today alone there were two different Northwestern student outlets reporting further allegations about the program's culture, in addition to a local radio report about the culture under the baseball program and coach Jim Foster. So I'm just really surprised that, especially in light of the Mike Polisky deal two years ago, the AD who was forced to resign after nine days, that the school misplayed this so badly from a public relations standpoint, which doesn't even get to the fact that Pat Fitzgerald, probably the most respected guy among his peers in coaching, is no longer employed by the only school, not only school, but the school he played for and was a legend at both as a coach and a player. Oh, by the way, camp opens next month for a team coming off a long-wind season.

So other than that, everything's calm here. Yeah, you said it, it does seem like from what happened from Friday to Monday that Northwestern thought because it's Pat Fitzgerald, because it's a legend, you know, we'll just give him a two-week suspension, which is really nothing this time of the year. It will get swept under the rug, probably then no one will care about it. And then after the two weeks, this will all go away and we'll still have our football coach. It's just how dumb is Northwestern to think that nothing else would come out here?

Yeah, it's really surprising. Now, look, the president there, Michael Schill is relatively new. He took over in September. I don't know what the dynamic is like there as far as his relationship and trust with the athletic department, with Pat Fitzgerald and with other involved parties. But once he released that statement himself Saturday night, backtracking, and he did it essentially unilaterally, from my understanding, you know, most people at the university were not expecting anyone to say anything that day. And at 11 p.m. Central time, Saturday night, the president put that statement saying, I'm reevaluating my decision.

That to me was, okay, everyone's kind of in CYA mode right now. My understanding, and other people reported this as well, is that what was detailed in the daily Northwestern report on Saturday was exactly what was in the actual investigative report that the powers that be at Northwestern read and were aware of. And after reading that, decided that a two-week suspension was just for Pat Fitzgerald. I know he's a coaching legend. I know he's a Northwestern legend.

Selfishly, no one's been better to work with than the media coaching lines and Pat Fitzgerald. But to read those allegations that were proven to be founded, according to the law firm you hired, and to think, it's Friday, we'll suspend them for two weeks in the off-season, this thing will go away, enjoy your summer on the lake, your weekend on the lake, it reeks of arrogance. It really does, from an administrative standpoint, especially again, when you look at the big market you're in, the big media market you're in, you look at the number of hungry reporters you have both on and off campus who, not trivializing the hard work they put in, but they were able to do what a law firm in some ways wasn't able to do, and they're able to do it in a matter of 24 hours, get these people on the phone and give them a play-by-play publicly of what they alleged happened.

And once that cat's out of the bag, once those allegations, and they're pretty brutal, once they're out there for the public to consume, you're playing from behind. And the longer they waited on this thing, the worse and worse it was going to get. Again, you saw multiple other reports today, you know, alleging culture issues within the program, and it's only Monday, right?

So this thing was going to reach ahead one way or another. It's crazy how quickly it happened, it's crazy at the time of the year it's happening, it's crazy it happened to the guy who, frankly, you know, three months ago had been the last guy I think to ever get fired for culture or player treatment issues, but that's where we are right now, it's 2023, it's almost the college football season, and Northwestern needs a new leader. And the other part about this, Matt Fortuna, and this shouldn't be what determines that gets someone fired, but you know the reaction by the public does play a role in everything, there's nothing to talk about right now. We're in a dead period in sports, how they thought, ah, just two weeks and nothing else would come out once again, it's a definition of stupidity.

No, look, there's a reason, and the Big 12's doing it this week, but there's a reason the SEC used to always do their media day this week during the All-Star break for MLB, because it's the only pro sport going on right now, no college sports going on right now, and it's a great way to garner attention. And in this case, it was a terrible way to garner attention if you're trying to hide something, as the leaders at Northwestern were. So, again, gross miscalculation on their part, a lot of moving parts here to be seen, starting with, frankly, the status of the president, who put himself in a corner here, who again, nothing changed other than the public reaction between Friday and Saturday night, which was what precipitated the eventual firing of Pat Fitzgerald.

Is the president in trouble? Is the athletic director in trouble? Especially with reports about dysfunction within the baseball program come into light publicly today. You know, for so long at Northwestern, there was the Holy Trinity, there was a triumvirate. It was the president, Morton Shapiro, the athletic director, Jim Phillips, who's now the ACC commissioner, and the head football coach, beloved alum, Pat Fitzgerald.

It was about as reliable of a brand in college sports as you could find in this decade. And now all three are gone. And I don't know who's going to be in any of those three seats come a month from now, because this thing's moving really fast, and everyone's scrambling to figure out what's what. Originally, I was reading on Friday that they said, even though we got the two-week suspension, it was unclear what the coaches actually knew. Do you think that matters? Because clearly, if they know, it is definitely bad. But even if they don't know, how are you the CEO of a football program and not knowing what's going on in your locker room? Right.

I mean, I think there are different degrees there, right? It matters whether you knew, and it matters whether you didn't know, because if you didn't know, you should know. That doesn't mean you were encouraging it.

That doesn't mean you were okay with it. But look at every postgame press conference or Monday press conference by every coach in the country. They all say, it starts with me, right? This one's on me. This falls with me. And that means all the good that we praise your program for, and it means all the bad that we criticize your program for.

And so, especially for a coach with that big of a personality, a quote-unquote player's coach, who again, was kind of upheld as the standard for how to run a clean program, for how to treat people the right way and have a positive culture. It's surprising. It's disappointing.

It really makes it a hard hole to come out of. And let's not beat around the busher either. We're talking about a team that won one game last year and three games the year before. So I think a lot of people who maybe are powerful there and not as into it with football would say, what are we bending over backwards to keep this guy for?

It's not like he's winning us games right now. Talking to Matt Fortuna, when you look at the future of Pat Fitzgerald, we've seen guys go through a lot and a lot worse in college athletics. And if another school thinks that that coach could win them games, they bring them in. I know just a little while ago, there was speculation about maybe Pat Fitzgerald being NFL head coach, the Green Bay Packers a few years back. What do you think the future is for Pat Fitzgerald in college athletics?

It's a good question. He's a young man by his industry standards. I know he's been around forever, but he's not yet 50. He's got one kid on that Northwestern roster right now. He's got two more who are local high school players. He's a Chicago guy through and through.

I doubt this is it for him to your point. We're talking about college coaching here, but a lot of people have done a lot worse and been accused of a lot worse and have not had trouble finding gainful, meaningful employment within the coaching world. And quickly.

Not long after. But I do think, look, Pat Fitzgerald has been contacted by every single NFL team in some capacity during his 17 years as Northwestern's head coach. He's been breached out to by God knows how many bigger football programs. He's had opportunities. Uh, I'm sure he still will have opportunities. I don't know what shape or form those opportunities will be, especially given the timing of this right now. Um, so it remains to be seen. Does he want to leave Chicago?

Does he want to get right back into it? You know, he's not going to need to worry about money. I don't think, I don't think they're firing him for cause. I don't think we'll have a case of firing for cause after the way they bungled this publicly. So I think he'll get paid even though he's already a pretty rich man by normal people standard. I think something will eventually turn up for him. I think he'll be very strategic about it because he's been strategic about everything.

Um, and he's not going to jump into something just for the sake of jumping into it. And Northwestern's first game is up against Rutgers on September 3rd. It's so late in the year. I remember when the Chris Beard situation happened in season, they made Rodney Terry the interim. And I don't think they expect him to do the full time head coach, but he had a great year and he ended up getting that, that tag. An interim here. And then you figure out who the next head coach is going to be in what December, probably.

I think that's the most likely scenario. Now, David Braun, who was hired as defensive coordinator in this off season is taking over the role was described to me specifically called. This is not an interim role. This is not even an acting role, but he's the leader of the program right now. The administration has yet to decide how they're going to go forward as far as determining their leadership structure for this coming season. Um, you know, I hate to put this in the same sentence as Baylor because it's a completely different, uh, situation, but you know, Baylor had a coach get fired in the middle of June and they brought in Jim Grove. It's kind of a caretaker for the rest of the year. Is that the approach Northwestern wants to take here? I don't know. You better hope you find a good guy.

If you do that. I mean, Paul, Chris knows his way around the big 10. Now I know he's an analyst at Texas right now, but you know, he's a credible name who I think would command the respect of that locker room from the moment he walked in there. I think it's much more likely they go with an interim role on staff and conduct a thorough search both in season and post-season, uh, cause they can't screw this one up.

And it leads to another question, right? Who's actually going to be making this higher? Well, this ad will this president be the ones in charge to chart the course for the future of Northwestern football, which by the way, has poured $800 million of donations into blowing up this current stadium after this year, going homeless for the next two years and then building a new stadium. Uh, so the, the job under normal circumstances, I think would be very, very attractive in the big 10 right now you're walking into a bit of a tire fire from a dysfunctional administration standpoint.

And Oh, by the way, you're recruiting to no home field for the next two seasons. Matt, Matt Fortuna, maybe I'm wrong in saying this, but I'm only viewing it from the national level. How has this kept quiet so long, especially in, in 2022 and 2023, but was there a lot more here locally?

Um, not necessarily. No, I mean this weekend, yes, but you know, the, the allegations that precipitated this investigation were brought forward to the university in November, um, at the end of a one wind season. Uh, and I, my timeline could be off here, but I believe they announced that they were investigating these, uh, allegations in January or so or early winter. Um, and, and candidly it kind of got forgotten about, um, locally and nationally. And I, it wasn't the first thing I was expecting to see in my inbox Friday morning. Oh yeah. Like, you know, I, I see the headline, I see the news really say, Oh yeah, that thing like, you know, that made me a bad reporter. I don't know.

Possibly. It just wasn't something that was at the top of the radar, but, but I don't think that it's not like there were massive allegations before this weekend. Um, and we could go into a whole other conversation about, you know, locker room ethics and guys being guys and yada yada yada from 15 years ago versus now.

I think it's a completely different world and climate we're in right now, mostly for the better as far as not keeping these things a secret, but it's a fair question, right? Because a lot of people were speaking up in the 72 hours since this initially broke and it's not painting the prettiest national picture of Northwestern football right now. I know you've been around college athletics for a long time, mainly covering football. You see this today and then you see the Bob Huggins story too, which I thought was over and, and now he's saying he didn't resign. Just what a bizarre time. Like I know you've been around a lot of coaches that don't know when to walk away for Huggins.

I don't see what leg he has to stand on here. No, I'm, I'm with you. I mean, Zach, riddle me this. If I told you last Monday, the next seven days, the two biggest sports headlines will be Britney Spears filing a police report, Victor won by honest security team at Northwestern firing Pat Fitzgerald for basically player mistreatment. You would have asked what, what I'm smoking and then some might have other questions for you, right? I mean, if I told you a year ago, Pat Fitzgerald's gonna get fired and Chris Collins is going to get extended after a nine year run of mostly underwhelming performance of the basketball court.

You also would have asked what I'm smoking, but it's a very unpredictable business. It's made a lot of people uncomfortable, especially in the coaching world. I can promise you that there are a lot of coaches out there right now saying if, if Pat Fitzgerald can't keep his job in this climate, what hope do we have? Or, you know, people better not be looking into disgruntled players on our team. But it's the reality of the situation right now. They get paid a lot of money. They talk a lot about upholding values and standards.

And when, when they get kind of exposed for, for, for falling short in that realm, there are consequences. Last thing I'll ask you, Matt Fortuna, I want to end this conversation somehow on a fun note. I was thinking about the college football playoff today, and I'm so excited for this year's college football season, because there's so much unknown, even at the top. There's not even a great amount of certainty, even with the teams that are usually there. If you had to take a stab at it right now, we won't hold you to it. Who would be your four teams in the playoff?

Good question. Last year we could do this, right? With four teams, it'll be a little more exciting next year at 12, a longer segment. You know, I'll say Alabama. I think they're going to win the SEC. Like I'm not betting against Kirby, Smar and Georgia, but I guess I kind of am. I just think it's really hard to three-peat, uh, still don't know for sure who's replacing Stetson Bennett. And look, as long as we're on the subject of off-field behavior or, you know, culture problems, hasn't been the rosiest picture off the field, off season for, for Kirby Smarts program.

And I wonder if that catches up to them at some point too. So I'll go with Alabama, especially after bringing in Tommy Reese as their offense coordinator and having a two year run without the national title. Uh, I will go with, uh, man, I, I, I, I, I'm so caught up in the drama of everything right now. I'm like, Oh yeah, we got actual football to talk about in the next couple of weeks. Uh, I will go with Ohio state out of the big 10 over Michigan. Okay.

That's juicy. Well, same, same reason. Um, I think this, you might have the best roster in the country this year. I also thought they might've last year, uh, they blew it against TCU, but, um, same reason. Uh, I, I think the off field stuff, whether it was the Jim Harbaugh dalliance, uh, the Chevy Schembechler misfire, a couple other, you know, negative headlines out of there.

I just think eventually that stuff catches up to you. And I'm surprised frankly, Jim Harbaugh, despite his recent success, hasn't just drained on everyone there emotionally. So I think that catches up to them this year.

Uh, I will go with, yeah, I'll say Washington. I'm sure I will regret this because they're a popular pick, but I think if healthy Michael Pennix Jr. is a chance to win the Heisman. He was actually on my ballot last year at number three.

Um, he just had, last year was the first year in his career where he's played a full season and stayed healthy. And we saw how good he is and how good that program was under him. So I'll go with Washington and let's go for, I don't know if we'll ever see a run like TCU last year that gets more and more improbable the more and more I think about it. Um, no, let's go Oklahoma.

Another blue blood, but they're a dark horse. I know they're picked fourth in the, in the big 12. When you look at the advanced stats, you look at, you know, I hate to use the word lock, but, but you know, by definition how unlucky they were last year, I think that's a program that's due for a bounce back season. And I think they win the big 12 in their last year.

How would that be? How would we get, if we get Oklahoma to win the big 12 and let's say USC or UCLA to win the PAC 12, um, on their way out of both conferences, I think that'd be pretty fitting. So not ready to say Texas is back is what I take from that.

I'm never ready to say that's one of those. I'll believe it when I see it just like the, and I lied one more that I just want to squeeze in. Cause I know you're on the Notre Dame beat for a while. Uh, where's the confidence level. I know they have Hartman there Marcus Truman year two.

Where's the confidence at with the fighting Irish. I think offensively, they have a chance to be explosive in a way that we haven't seen in quite some time. I think the personnel on that side of the ball is really, really special. I think Sam Hartman's the best quarterback they've had. We'll be the best quarterback they've had there since Brady Quinn. And I think when you've got that experienced quarterback like that, who set conference and school records, you've got a chance to have a really good season. I do have concerns about the defense, particularly the defensive line. And look, we can look at the schedule and say they got three big ones, right? Clemson, Ohio state and USC. Reality situation is they got a second year coach who couldn't beat Marshall and Sanford last year, but beat Clemson up pretty good. So I hope if you're an earnings fan that Marcus Freeman got those mistakes out of the system, they're not going to overlook weaker opponents this year and they can swing up and maybe put together a 10 and two season.

I'll go nine and three right now. Uh, but, but I think with Hartman slinging the rock back there, they got a chance to be really, really good in office. Matt Fortuna, wish it was under better circumstances, but always appreciate you making some time out for us.

Thank you. There you go. Matt Fortuna joining us from the athletic, one of the best minds covering the game of college football. And I'll tell you that final four that he just gave us for college football, really going out on a limb. I don't think anyone else in the country is going to have those four teams. Uh, so he goes, not Georgia, not Michigan takes Bama, Ohio state. Okay. And then Washington who I like Kaitlin DeBoer of Michael Pennix, and then takes the resurgence of Oklahoma near to where Brent Venables.

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Alrighty. This is Zach Yelp show on CBS sports radio home run Derby going on right now. You have Julio Rodriguez against Pete Alonzo Rodriguez already has 32 home runs and he's in bonus time with 47 seconds, I think remaining. And we'll see what he finishes at.

And this is right in Seattle. So, you know, these fans are going nuts and we'll see if Pete Alonzo is able to oust him once again. So interesting show today, big thanks to Matt Fortuna for joining us in the last segment, Dean Thomas, JP Crawford, and then a rather bizarre interview with Deebo Samuel that ended up with him handing the phone off to the publicist to hang up on us. So that's always fun, but I got to get to a little more college football. We'll move away from the Pat Fitzgerald story.

We'll move away from the college athletic story with basketball, Bob Huggins, as we've talked a lot about that this evening. I did see that Phil Steele, I guess a Chad Steele last break. That's the Ravens PR guy. So I was confusing my Steeles, but the long time college football writer Phil Steele did release his college football rankings the other day.

And let's react to that right now. Here was, I'm not going to give you his entire top 25, but these were the teams in the top 10. In a number 10 Notre Dame, as you just heard with Matt Fortuna, who just joined us, a lot of optimism with Marcus Freeman in a year number two. I know they lost the Marshall last year, but you look at this Notre Dame program, they improve towards the end of the season and you're bringing in Sam Hartman, who I like a lot, who came over from Wake Forest. Nine, you have LSU.

I know a lot of people crapped on Brian Kelly last year when he did leave Notre Dame to join LSU with the Tigers. And every time I think of LSU now, I always think of their old head football coach, Ned Orgeron, just screaming, go Tigers. But when you look at LSU, they made it to the SC championship game last year. Now they still probably are the third best team in the SEC this year. I go Georgia one, Bama two, but with Daniels there at quarterback, Brian Kelly, now you're number two in the SEC.

I'm curious how far they could take it. Mike Norvell has an excellent quarterback. Norvell had a big year last year for him at Florida State. You could question, do you love Clemson coming up this year as Davos still been able to win that conference, but they haven't been able to go back to the college football playoff in a little bit.

Are they ready to make that next step? Seven is USC. They have one of the most talked about players in the sport, the most talked about player in the sport in Caleb Williams, because it doesn't look like Arch Manning's going to play this year as it's designed that Quinn Ewers already won the job. So USC now with Lincoln Riley, final year in the Pac-12.

And here's my question for Lincoln Riley. We know that offense is going to put up a ton of points. Is their defense going to be able to make a stop? And we saw their defense come back to bite them two times up against Utah where they blew leads last year. Six Penn State, you know me, I don't like to say anything positive about Penn State outside of their athletic director, I like him Pat Kraft.

And I did enjoy their basketball run this year. But from a football standpoint, even though I think James Franklin is an overrated coach, they got a ton of talent. If you're an NFL mock draft nerd, you see like three guys going very early for Penn State next year and all these way too early mock drafts. Five's Ohio State. They have a big game against Penn State, then the game at the end of the year up against Michigan. It's going to be can they compete up against Michigan?

Because last year's not the case. Four in Alabama, who the heck is going to be quarterback this year? Three Michigan.

I agree with Matt Fortuna. Michigan may have the best roster in the country. McCarthy, is he going to take the big step this year?

You return Blake Corum, you have Donovan Edwards. Last year's they showed you they can produce a ton of talent at the defensive side of the ball. But for Michigan, it's not only can you beat out Ohio State again and get back to the college football playoff and win the Big Ten for third year in a row, it's can you get into that national championship game and then hoist that national championship trophy. If it's not this year, I don't know when it's ever going to be for Michigan because they are loaded with talent. And I was surprised here with Phil's ranking of Clemson and at two. DJ Uncle Lele did not work out of Clemson.

Now it's transferred. That offensive line the last two years has not been good. There's not been a lot of creativity in the offensive side of the ball. You knew that eventually we're going to go to Cade Klubnick next year, last year. Now he's going to be their starter. With Clemson, they're going to be able to get the most out of Cade Klubnick. But that ACC outside of Florida State, it's not really all that difficult. And Clemson Clemson last year got every opportunity, even if it was not a great year for them, to get into that college football playoff. And at every turn they gave it away. But I was surprised to see Clemson at number two and then Phil is going to put Georgia in at number one.

I can't crush it, you know. Last year, what did we say this time? Georgia won, but they lost all this talent. Stetson Bennett's not that great.

I know Stetson Bennett now is off of the pros. But he got drafted so early, which I would never have thought that. And then they won a national championship and were better than the team that won two years ago. So until someone takes out Georgia, everyone chasing Georgia, can't fault him for putting Georgia in at one. So no Texas in that top 10. They were in at number 11. Washington was in at 14. That's been a pick that if you're not going USC, a lot of people have elected to go with Washington. Some other big name programs, Oregon at 15. You've had Tennessee, who's replacing Hendon Hooker.

And you'll see Milton there, quarterback, he's in at 19. Oklahoma in at 20. And then UNC with Drake May in at number 21. And then TCU made the college football playoff last year. And the national championship game was one of the best first years you'll ever see from Sonny Dykes.

They were in at 25. So those are some of the notable teams from Phil Steele as he released his college football preseason top 25 rankings. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. I haven't seen this guy in a bit because they changed up my schedule last week. Marco Belletti is here.

Marco? Yeah, where the hell you been, man? They had me working earlier. It's not like I took off and I went on a vacation.

I wish that was the case. They just said you, you worked earlier 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern and I say management. Yes, we won't have a fight this time on that because that doesn't, in the large scheme of things, if you tell me you're going to work earlier, I'm actually okay with it.

It's not the end of the world if we're being honest with people. I love the 6 to 10 p.m. Eastern, 3 to 7 p.m. Pacific audience, but I got to listen to management. There's many things you want to fight management on. If they tell you to work earlier, that's not one of them. No, that's fair.

That's definitely fair. I'm a little skeptical here. Okay. To ask you how you've been because I never know what answer I'm going to get from Marco Belletti when I ask that simple question of how you've been and I already got hung up once tonight by Deebo Samuel and then a PR person interrupted me in the interview because they didn't like my questions.

I don't want to, I'm afraid to ask questions now here, Marco. I'm fine. Okay. I'm fine.

Have a fun weekend with the family and everything? Sure, sure. Everything's good, yeah. I mean, there's not a lot of sleep going on, but that's to be assumed and understandable with a one month old.

That's fine. So the newborn not sleeping well. He's actually doing pretty good considering, you know, he's whatever, six weeks now, he's doing a pretty good job. It doesn't lead to a lot of sleep, but he's actually not that bad. Now, I'm going to ask a question where I think you'll have no problem answering it, but if my sister's listening right now, she may not talk to me for maybe two months.

There was a big debate. My sister is in from Colorado for a month and she has a seven month old, my niece. I don't get involved in the decision making process. Nor should you. It's not my kid. You do what you want. But I got a mother and my mother, right, it's her daughter, the first child they're raising, all that stuff.

Okay. Yeah, mothers like to give pieces of advice, right? I'm sure your mother doesn't shy away from giving advice.

So she, my mom was a little bit annoyed. There was no sleep schedule for the baby. Like the baby would stay up, like wakes up in the morning and would stay up till 10 pm and then would go to bed. Now the baby sleeps without a peep throughout the middle of the night. No naps?

Not a single noise. No design naps. And that was my mother's reaction. Like Marco's eyes or... No, I'm just right. Look, if the baby's sleeping all the way through the night and no naps already at seven months, that's stunning.

But go ahead, please. Yeah. So my mother keeps on saying, you know, baby should set up a schedule, get the baby a nap in the middle of the day. Now the baby sometimes will doze off at like 2 pm and fall asleep for a month. But my mom, she couldn't believe and wrap her head around that there was no schedule. I guess when I was a kid, there was a big sleeping pattern in my sister. When she was a kid, there was a big sleeping pattern.

I think most people are very regimented in making sure that their children have specific exact nap times to try to avoid the specific exact bedtimes at night to try to make sure most babies do somewhat like the routine. So that is definitely helpful. Now I will say, out of personal experience, I've failed in all three of my children thus far. Now, granted, the six-week-old. I haven't failed, but I know I'm going to fail in that regard.

Yeah, that's pretty quick. You're pretty hard on yourself saying you failed already. It's difficult to do.

One, we struggle with that anyway. But more importantly, I'm not home at night. My wife's got all three of them. So you don't really know what's going on besides what your wife's reported? Well, no, I mean, but I also know that like during the day to get like naps, we're not necessarily in control all day because she works, I work, I have to sleep sometimes during the day. Like there's chaos in our schedules, which makes it more chaotic for your baby's schedule. Like if you have them go to whatever, some sort of daycare, the daycare sets that up for you and they run that schedule and they run a tight ship.

If you're home with your child, you could do whatever you want. And if you have the ability to make it a regimented schedule, so be it and more power to you. Unfortunately, some people don't have their own schedule situated, like myself, who get just naps basically like a child and different spots and, you know, an hour in here and two hours there.

We find it difficult. You get more nap time than my niece, that sounds like. Apparently, yeah.

I also don't get to sleep through the night, but hey, what are you going to do? No, I mean, like that's what I do. So it depends. Everyone likes to tell everyone what to do. I'm a big believer in you do what you got to do to survive. You got questions and you need advice and you need help. So be it and you lean on who you trust. But when people unsolicited advice, no matter where it's coming from, and I've said this out loud to people around me before, this is not striking and new, nor are you surprised to hear me say it. If it's unsolicited to me, chances are I don't want to hear it. And most people don't want to hear it. When you need advice, you seek it.

When you just sit back, good chance no matter what somebody's telling you, even if you know they're right, you look at them and go, great, that's true. So how do you want me to do this? Because you've got the answers, but we go, well, you have to do this. Okay, are you working my schedule? Are you sleeping my hours? Do you have, you know, my spouse?

Do you have my other children? Like everyone's got all the things that they want you to do, but they don't actually have to do what you do. That's where you get hung up and get into some problems. Now, I had a little bit of a bleep eating grin throughout your entire monologue right there.

It's not anything that you said. I already got a text. Okay, I'm sure you do. But not for my sister. Yeah, right. She's saying, I'm listening and you tell Marco, I give good advice.

I'm sure she does. That's the thing, though. When it's unsolicited, it goes over your head because one, you don't, you're not receiving it. You're not receptive to it. You need to seek out the advice and good chance, if you're a parent for the first time, whether you've got a seven month old, seven week old or a seven year old, there's a good chance you're going to stop and go, what am I doing wrong?

What do I need to do here? Because you're confused. You're going through it for the first time and you're going to go through the bumps and all the different things. But when you don't ask and it's just brought to you, even with good intentions, the first reaction is going to be, the hell do you know? That's how we all are. Now, maybe I'm just a big giant jerk and I'm the only one that thinks that way.

But I find it difficult to believe the brain functions that way. We're not receptive until we're ready for it. So I would say, let them wait. When they want it, they'll come to you. That's hard to do, but that's the way you got to do it.

Dr. Phil, Dr. Valetti in the house. I try. Now, I also don't have grown children.

I haven't been through the ringers and I'm not sitting here looking at it and going, what are you doing? I haven't done that. That's why every situation is different and everybody has to do what they feel is best. Yes.

Last thing I'll ask you, this has nothing to do with babies. This goes back to sports. I read something this morning and I don't know if it was just some random Twitter user, if it was some journalist, it was in the haze of just waking up and doing the stupid thing of just looking at your phone right away. And it has grown on me throughout the day. I saw someone say earlier this morning that Elie De La Cruz, who's only played in 30 games and has been sensational, should be in the All-Star game tomorrow night. Now, my first reaction to that, Marco, was that's stupid. That's like violating the history and what it means to be an All-Star. But the more and more I thought about it throughout the day, Marco, the All-Star game isn't what it used to be. And everyone now, every team has to have an All-Star and so many guys don't go to the game to begin with. And I'll give credit to the guys for the Home Run Derby. There's actual stars of the Home Run Derby, the dunk contest. We have Mack McClung who ended up doing a good job, but he should have never been in a dunk contest to begin with.

And Jericho Sims, right? Guys like that that are in the dunk contest, not the biggest star power. But the more and more I thought about it, Major League Baseball doesn't have many isolated windows to market their stars. Where if Rob Manfred, who I can't stand, said, Tamar, you know what, I made an executive decision. I'm putting Elie De La Cruz in the All-Star game. He's one of the more exciting players of the game. Even though it's only 30 games, I couldn't crush a commissioner for that because it's about marketing the young stars of the game. Really, the All-Star game now. I'm a little torn on this.

I like the marketing and I think that they need to do a much better job of getting their young stars in front of eyeballs and really kind of showcasing what Major League Baseball is all about. However, you do have to earn your place on that team. Because if you do not, and we open this up to just anybody. To me, I think we're leading, and it's not because of the fans and the marketing and all those things, but inside that clubhouse and inside that locker room, there is the talk of like, look, man, I know you're good, but you don't belong here now.

Guess what? Work on it and get there because then you'll earn it and then you'll be here on the right, you know, statue, right preference, whatever you want to call it. And I think that's important for the player because if you make a player who's only played 20 or 30 games and you put him in the All-Star game and you put him in a situation that he has not earned, now all of a sudden he has to earn the respect of the guys around him and the other guys around him are going to look at him and go, what have you done? I know you're supposed to be good. You've looked good, but you haven't accomplished this. Let me ask you this. That's dangerous. Are you saying that in his own clubhouse or in the, the, what would be the NL?

I would say that in the entire All-Star game, NL, AL, everyone there. We're all, you know, you're all joking about it and everyone having fun with it, but there are going to be times where they look over and you go, Rook, you don't belong here. And it's not because we don't think you're talented. It's because you didn't earn it. And there is something to be said for earning it. Now, whether that's a fan vote and you go, well, they didn't earn that.

No, no, no. They earned that through their prior play and the fans recognition of them. So they earned a vote that maybe they didn't earn on the field, but they earned it at prior. You, at some point, you have to earn something. Nothing can be handed to you. That would be completely handed to you.

That I have a problem with. If he's that good and we all think he is, and he's going to be that next year, next year, you put him in the face of the game and that's what you got to do in the All-Star game. But I feel like you got to earn your spot. And the last thing I'll say, cause I know we're way past the break and we got to get to it. But I will just say for major league baseball, it's actually a good thing now that we've been having this conversation, right?

Because we've talked about a tonic a lot in the regular season. We've talked now the last 30 games about Ellie Dela Cruz for most of the time, the only time major league baseball is going to talk about in this network is if someone tested positive for some performance enhancing drug, there's some cheating scandal or some old guy is just yelling about a backflip. And this is the problem because we've had stars in the last, say 10 years or whatever it is. And we have not done a good job of marketing them. Bryce Harper's the Mike trout's the Mookie bets. It's not like we haven't seen, Oh, we haven't seen a crop of stars like this.

Yes, you have. But major league baseball has not done a good job of putting them on the face of the game and putting them in your face. NBA does it.

Even the NFL does it where the game is actually more important than the stars, but we still know the top players, major league baseball does a terrible job of putting the guys that they need to out in front and making them the stars of the game. Now they have to do their end of the bargain. I'll have Fernando Tatis Jr. Can't get in trouble. Yeah.

Going to be the face of the game. Can't get in trouble. That's what I mean. Like there are responsibilities that come along with it, but we, we, baseball itself has not done a good enough job to get the younger player out in front. But to me, that, that player also has the responsibility of earning it and then keeping it. So you're 50 50 on this. It seems like I would be more towards the idea of no, you can't do it. I like the marketing.

The marketing is great. And for the game itself, I can't kill you the same way. Like the NBA mid season tournament. I think it's asinine. However, if you're going to market the game and it's going to make money and it gets eyeballs there, just like extra wildcard teams are going to do. I don't have to like it, but I understand it.

Runner at second base and extra innings. I hate it. I get why they do it. And it's good for the game. So that's good for them. However, you still have a part of earning certain things when it's individual performance to me that you're crossing a line. Now I can't just put a guy in the team on the team just because I like his name.

Can't work like that. Hey, this is Howie and this is Nick and you're listening to the Zach Gelp show on CBS sports radio. And guess what? Zach is back. All right. He's live. He's nationwide on CBS sports radio. This is the Zach Gelp show. Oh my God. All right. He's at Gelp show, CBS sports radio.

Since Marco Belletti was just spewing great. And I mean, great life advice. We only have about two to three minutes here, so we will blow off the closing bell today. I'll tell you what would have given a stock down to Northwestern would have given a stock down to Bob Huggins. Maybe people, Samuel would have got a stock down too after hanging up on us. Ashley, you know what? What is the PR person supposed to do? He clearly gave the phone to her and then she has to communicate. So she had to do his dirty work, I guess.

And then we would have found a way to give a stock up to like one or two people. But the home run Derby is going on right now. And the first round is over. Randy Rosarena defeated my pick of Elise Garcia, 24 home runs of 17. Luis Robert Jr. 28 home runs.

Daddly Russians, 27. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 26 home runs. The Mookie bets is 11. And then Julio Rodriguez in front of the home crowd out there in Seattle. 41 home runs to Pete Alonso's 21 home runs.

So now we're in the semifinals. Randy Rosarena going up against Luis Robert Jr. And you have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. going up against Julio Rodriguez. And that's the beauty of the home run Derby. Folks, you just heard the names. You got Vladimir Guerrero Jr. just for starters against Julio Rodriguez.

And in the previous round, you had Vlade Guerrero Jr. up against Mookie Betts. That is star power. And if I could, I have a lot of wishes for the NBA. But in terms of their All-Star Weekend, the actual Sunday of All-Star Weekend in hoops, I don't really care for. They made some changes, make it a little bit more exciting. But that Saturday night is what I love. That three-point contest, I'm always a sucker for it. But the slam dunk contest can be such a great thing once again. But you need the stars involved. Don't get me wrong, Mac McClung put on a show this year, but he's Mac McClung.

Go give me the stars once again in the slam dunk contest. Major League Baseball, I don't get a lot of things right. They get their home run Derby correct. Now also, probably another reason why we got it right so far is that I'm sitting here hosting the show so I don't have to listen to the broadcast coverage.

Because last year, man, Karl Ravitch sounded like a robot. And I even saw he did some interview leading up to this that the Derby's the toughest thing to call just because how quickly the home run Derby does move. I still miss Chris Berman on the home run Derby. Back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, back, gone.

So at this point, though, you eventually got to get some new life in the booth. Luis Robert Jr. has six home runs. Randy Rosarena has 35.

As they're in the semi finals, we'll see who will advance from this one but looking pretty good right now for Randy Rosarena. Alrighty, that's the Zach Gilp show on CBS Sports Radio fun Monday show. Big thanks because I'm polite to Deebo Samuel. And then our real thank yous to JP Crawford for stopping by Dean Thomas. Excellent, excellent, excellent recap of the big UFC card over the weekend and then Matt Fortuna. And a big thank you to Kevin Wall as well and each and every one of you for calling, listening and tweeting can always give me a follow in the good old cesspool of Twitter and Instagram at Zach Gilp.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We'll be back tomorrow for a big Tuesday edition show as we get you set and react to the All Star game. Alrighty, everybody, we out. Bye, bye.

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